Most conventional carpet stripping machines utilize reciprocating blade members to perform the stripping. Examples of such machines are shown in the Anderson et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,683,657 and Anderson U.S. Pat. No. 4,626,033. An oscillating head for a floor stripping machine is shown in the Grass U.S. Pat. No. 4,669,784. Carpet strippers of this type tend to pull apart the carpet being stripped. A similar reciprocating blade member concept for stripping has been employed in the reciprocating shingle remover of Sanchez U.S. Pat. No. 4,277,104. All such reciprocating type machines are noisy and none are self-propelled.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,394,052 to Adams et al, a carpet take-up device is disclosed in which a cable hooked to an edge of a carpet across the room is used to propel the device forward as a spool is rotated to wind up the cable. As the device is moved forward, a horizontally disposed blade separates the carpet from its supporting surface. This type of an arrangement is not self-contained and only works when the carpet being stripped has enough strength in its fibers to provide an anchor for pulling the device toward the anchor as the blade separates the carpet from the supporting surface.